Seventh on the list was "womyn" for women in order to distance the word from men

This one has me laughing. Do we really need to change the word to distance ourselves from men? To be quite honest, I don't want to be distant from men, and I certainly don't need to change the word to recognize a man from a womyn.

Seeing the word womyn in print does make me think of womb, which in turn makes me think that someone wants us back in the dark ages, barefoot and with a full womb.

Women as a word put us on equal intellectual footing, while still retaining our sexual and emotional differences.

Wanders off...lost in thought again......

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love. Sophocles (496 BC - 406 BC)

"Season's Greetings" also raises no alarms for me. I see no harm in that phrase.

Although I was exposed to the C.E. designation during my college years, I have to admit it never caught on for me. In actuality, though, it really describes more of what we are trying to say to begin with. Most people (at least here in the U.S.) probably think A.D. stands for "after death" (in regards to Jesus of Nazareth), anyway.

Apo: "What would a "rightly guided criminal" be?"Well, maybe close to a well-stocked safe...

Not sure I get this, gailr.

In most of the radical feminist literature I read in the 80's, the
ladies used the misspelling "wymyn." I am not certain why, but just from the look of it, an "o" might be too archetypically feminine and betray a vulnerablity, whereas, a "y" looks very closed and unavailable.

I agree with Sunny! It is silly!

Apo

'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck

tcward wrote:"Season's Greetings" also raises no alarms for me. I see no harm in that phrase.

-Tim

It will be interesting to watch the ultra-conservative take on correct greetings this winter, and I mean interesting in the is that the biggest problem these people have? sense. This incident highlights how vocabulary can cause people on varous sides of a topic to act oddly, and suggests that being grossly offended requires only an exposure to a different opinion, especially an opinion rooted in fact. Seems like a deferred success of faith to get someone fired over one customer's childishness.

I first encountered the B.C.E./C.E. terminology while reading the Reader's Digest condensed version of The Source by James A. Michener. (Even the condensed version of a Michener novel is long!) The original novel was published in 1964, so I would have read it about 1965 or '66. The "C.E." stood for "Christian Era" as I recall, being described as a compromise between promotion one branch of a religion (Anno Domini) and a historical fact (Christian Era).

Interesting articles, gailr. I remember learning in history classes that the Catholic Church as much as possible without violating their doctrines merged pagan holidays and some pagan customs with the Christian Holidays to make it easier to convert pagans to Christianity. And in my studies of Latin American History I learned that the cross was already a symbol of pre-columbian meso-american cultures before the Spanish arrived. One of my professors commented that this made it easier for the indigenous population to accept Christianity.

{Check out} the Foundation for the Advancement of MesoAmerican Studies website.

Hey, just in case I don't find the time to log in to the Agora between now and the solstice, Merry Christmas to all the Christian Agorans, Happy Hanakkah to those of Jewish tradition, and to everyone else, Happy Holidays and/or Seasons Greetings.

lol seasons greetings, we are not allowed to say Merry Christmas, too secular are we for that. I think that's awsome, now all those people who object to Christianity can start working on the holidays! Hey you guys we appreciate you taking our place while we revele, and we'll work while you hug your trees on Arbor day, and go nutz on halloween!

LOL
just kidding!

Kt
and you folks who call yourselves Christians and live for the devil, you go to work too, why pretend to celebrate something meaningless to you?

I'll say Merry Christmas, Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad, and so on to my heart's content. If you don't celebrate it, just turn a deaf ear and leave me alone. You're as much entitled to your holidays and stuff as I am to mine, so don't trespass.